De Havilland Dove
The de Havilland D.H. 104 Dove was a British twin-engine short-haul airliner developed for service after World War 2 as a replacement for de Havilland's already successful Dragon and Dragon Rapide airliners. Of all-metal construction, the aircraft featured modern innovations such as constant speed variable pitch propellors, flaps and a tricycle undercarriage. The cabin could be easily configured to accommodate from 7-11 passengers. An efficient wing design brought stall speed down to 56 knots on landingPia Bergqvist, "Training Aircraft: The Unique and Unusual," Flying, last modified August 18, 2011, URL and made it suited for short-field operations. The Dove was one of the most successful British post-war airliners although it had to compete with the Douglas DC-3 and a large number of surplus wartime aircraft. Some 542 Doves were built and the type entered service with many airlines as well as military customers. The Royal Air Force and Royal Navy used variants named the Devon and Sea Devon respectively. Some examples remain in service to this day. The Dove and Biggles The Dove first appears in Biggles and the Black Mask where it was used by Roderick Canson to smuggle counterfeit currency notes from Nice into Britain. At that time, the aircraft was operating under the umbrella of an innocent and legitimate budget holiday agency named Sunnitours Ltd ferrying holiday makers between Britain and the French riviera. Canson hid the fake notes in secret compartments cut into the two passenger seats. The Dove was the aircraft Biggles and Bertie chose in Biggles Looks Back. To collect Biggles, von Stalhein and Marie Janis, Bertie had to make a night landing into a beet field in the valley of the Voltana River. The Dove may or may not have been the best aircraft available. On the plus side, it was modern and reliable and had good short-field performance. It could also carry the number of passengers Biggles needed with a good surplus of power. A tricycle undercarriage made landings in an unfamiliar field easier. There may have been better STOL aircraft available but mainly Biggles was driven by considerations of economy and urgency. It was a private venture and they would not be able to use Air Police aircraft. They had to buy their own aircraft for the operation and buy it quickly, and Biggles knew a Dove had been offered for sale by an air charter company which had recently gone into liquidation. Indeed, could this have been Roderick Canson's company which Biggles had helped to shut down a few books before? Perhaps Bertie did manage to get bargain basement prices, and perhaps they managed to resell the aircraft after use, because a brand new Dove in those days would not have been cheap. A Dove in 1953 cost USD$89,000. This was, in fact, one of the impediments which stood in the way of more prolific sales of the type. Specifications *Crew: Two pilots, 8-11 passengers or freight *Length: 39 ft 3 in (11.96 m) *Wingspan: 57 ft 0 in (17.40 m) *Height: 13 ft 4 in (4.06 m) *Wing area: 335 sq ft52 (31.1 m²) *Empty weight: 6,325 lb (2,869 kg) *Max. takeoff weight: 8,950 lb (4,060 kg) *Engines: 2 × de Havilland Gipsy Queen 70 Mk 3 6-cylinder in-line inverted air-cooled engines, 400 bhp (289 kW) each *Maximum speed: 230 mph (200 knots, 370 km/h) *Cruise speed: 187 mph (163 knots, 301 km/h) at 8,000 ft (2,440 m) (econ cruise) *Range: 880 miles (765 nm, 1,415 km) *ceiling: 21,700 ft (6,610 m) References See also *Wikipedia:De_Havilland_Dove Category:Aircraft Category:Actual aircraft Category:Aircraft (canonical works)